I hope you’re enjoying what now appears to be a three-part series highlighting the apparent market boost for renewable energy in the era of the corona virus. Two weeks ago we featured a piece discussing the increasingly obvious pathway for renewables post pandemic, yesterday a piece about renewable energy usage upsetting that of the coal industry, and more dire news for the coal industry in today’s news. As Brad Plumer wrote in our post on May 4, “Even if coal does manage to beat expectations and rebound later this year, experts say that the dramatic shift in the nation’s electricity system is unlikely to be just a blip.”
In just a few years, the company’s use of fossil fuels will flip almost completely, going from about 60 percent coal to zero, and from about 25 percent wind to about 60 percent.
The move may signal a turning point for rural cooperatives, which have been slow to embrace renewable energy,